The Blaze Ignites

by Nichelle Rae

  “I’ll lift you and then you use your magic to lift me. It shouldn’t drain you badly,” Ortheldo said.

  Azrel shook her head. “I don’t want to be drained at all. I’ll lift you up.”

  “Then how will you get up?”

  Azrel sighed and thought for a moment. “Rabryn? Think your Salynn strength can leap up there while you’re holding me?”

  “Is that something my kin would normally be able to do?” he asked.

  Azrel nodded. “I believe so.”

  Rabryn gripped the branch in his hands and let his legs fall. Then he dropped gracefully to the ground. “Then I should be able too.”

  “Okay. We have to hurry. I can hear them coming. Reese, hang down from the branch like Rabryn did and get Ortheldo when we lift him up to you. The rest of you, get higher in the tree so you’re not seen.”

  Once Ortheldo was in the tree, Rabryn looked at Azrel. “How do you want to do this?”

  “Just like Addredoc and Cairikson did,” Azrel said and immediately climbed onto her brother’s back.

  He hooked his arms under her legs and hiked her up higher onto his back before letting his arms fall. “Okay, hold on.”

  “Like I’m going to let go.”

  Rabryn chuckled before he bent his knees and leapt up with the grace of a mountain lion and gripped the branch. I breathed a sigh of relief when Azrel took the branch and pulled herself up and then Rabryn joined her.

  “Start climbing. I hear them. They’re close,” Azrel said harshly and all of us quickly started climbing higher into the canopy.

  I suddenly realized these trees were monstrous! Looking up into them I got dizzy with how high they were. They certainly didn’t look this tall from the outside. The branches got thicker and thicker as I made my way up.

  Finally we came across a wild tangle of branches that were thick enough for two people to walk on side by side. As far as my Salynn eyes could see, all the branches at this height twisted and interlaced with one another like the vines of a jungle, complete with almost hidden gaps that would cause us to plummet to our deaths if we missed seeing them.

  “How in the world are we supposed to get through this?” I asked more to myself.

  “Very slowly and carefully,” Rabryn said as he climbed up onto a branch next to the one that I stood on. All of us took various places on different branches.

  “Let’s go,” Azrel said in front of me. “This is going to be slow going enough without us pausing to chat.”

  Before anyone took a step though, we heard the grunts and pants of creatures running on the ground. We watched them below us as they reached the tree line, where suddenly the entire group slammed against air! All of our eyes widened as we watched them ram into each other as if they had run into a wall. But there was nothing there!

  “What the hell?” Ortheldo asked himself softly.

  I looked at Azrel in front of me. She pointed to Cairikson and I nodded my understanding; the Whiteians had cast a spell. What I didn’t understand, though, was why they had cast a spell to keep the creatures inside their woods. Azrel just shook her head, silently telling me not to ask, and continued forward.

  All of us started walking along the branches again towards the center of Galad Kas, staying almost silent because Gorkors had very good hearing. I quickly noticed that many creatures were gathering beneath us, sticking uncomfortably close to the path we were taking above them. When the crowd got up to three hundred, I looked at Azrel. She was already looking at me over her shoulder, sensing my concern, and then simply patted the pocket of her leggings in response. The necklace! They were homing in on its power. That’s why they were sticking so close and gathering nearby.

  We continued on for hours in the treetops. The going was slow, but safe. I watched as the sun started lighting up the sky and realized we’d been up all night. The thought of that made me sigh. Horseback would normally take us three hours to get to the lake of Galad Kas. Up in this jungle of branches, however, it was taking much longer. I’d never thought I would miss a horse so much.

  As I discovered my new respect for horses, Azrel suddenly stopped in front of me. She stared down at the massive group that had accumulated below us. Her sword was in her hand and a fire that I had never seen before was in her eyes.

  My eyes went wide realizing she was gearing up to fight them! I immediately looked down below. Was she mad? There had to be a thousand creatures scattered below! Did she want us to climb down and fight them? Seven of us couldn’t take a thousand! Seven of us couldn’t take a hundred! Not without magic!

  Azrel looked at me and I pleaded with my eyes, asking the question, “What are you doing?”

  She gave me a knowing grin, and then unbelievably, jumped off the branch we stood on.

  I gasped as I watched her fall. Fifty feet she plunged, obliterating branches with her white fire magic until she landed on her feet in a deep crouch right in the middle of the mass of creatures! All of them cried out and jumped back in surprise. Azrel straightened, put her free hand on her hip, and smirked. She looked as I had never seen her look since meeting her. She looked radiant! Strong! Beautiful! Confident!

  “Hello boys,” she purred.

  Before any of us could scream in panic, the sky darkened with arrows. The only light came from Azrel’s white fiery sword, which flashed triumphantly as it cut through creatures like wind through an open field. She didn’t have to do much because most of the creatures fell dead from the storm of arrows.

  I wasn’t sure where to look first. It was all happening so fast! So I looked in my leader’s direction. Acalith stared down at the massacre with an open mouth and wide eyes. I looked over at Rabryn and Ortheldo, who stared back with identical expressions. So that had just happened. I wasn’t nuts.

  I looked down again and saw Azrel step out of the circle of bodies. “Come on down. It’s okay.”

  No sooner had she said that than bodies started gently floating down from the tree tops farther above us, on clouds of sparkling white magic. It was the Galad Kas Salynns! All two thousand of them drifted down from every area my eyes could see.

  A few of them stopped in front of us who were still in the branches and offered their hands. I took the hand of the one that stopped for me, stepped onto the cloud of his magic, and we started to descend to the forest floor.

  When we reached it Azrel was already holding Cairikson in her arms and talking with a gorgeous curly blonde-haired Salynn and a gentle looking white-haired elder Salynn. The pair looked somber as the lady Salynn took Cairikson and hugged him close, and the white-haired male petted the boy’s head.

  Azrel looked at all of us as we touched down. “I know you have questions, but first allow me to introduce Palpanor and Isadith—the lord of Galad Kas and his daughter.”

  We all mumbled words of greeting and then Rabryn immediately started in on her. “Azrel, what were you thinking? You scared the hell out of me!”

  “Perhaps I can explain,” Azrel’s voice said. But it was cooler, older, and her appearance melted into that of the White Warrior.

  Tension immediately spiked. I glanced over at Rabryn and saw his fists clench, his jaw set, and his brows draw together. We hadn’t seen or heard from the White Warrior since his defiance of her a couple of nights ago. For the first time ever, I realized that I really didn’t want to see her.

  “Azrel is perfectly capable of explaining things. Why don’t you let her?” Ortheldo shot out.

  Acalith suddenly sprung forward, gripped Ortheldo’s shirt in both her fists, and jerked him forward so they were almost nose to nose. “I’ve had enough of this disrespect for the White Warrior! She just saved all your pathetic hides, damn it! How dare you—”

  Suddenly a slim hand stealthily snuck in front of Acalith and gripped her shirt. With a small jerk, Acalith was spun around and was faced with Lady Isadith’s glare and flaring nostrils. Without a word Isadith’s opposite fist came back and slammed hard into Acalith’s mouth.

  “I�
�ve had enough of your arrogance!” Isadith fired angrily but still somehow gently. “And I’ve only looked at your soul for a brief moment.” Acalith stared at her with blood trickling out the corner of her lip. “You are completely blinded by your status and ego and it’s making me ill as I look deeper.”

  Acalith tried to make a start for the beautiful Salynn, but the tip of Azrel’s sword appeared at her chest. “That’s enough,” she said in a deep tone of warning. The White Warrior was gone.

  Acalith shook so violently that her face turned red. Then she spun and walked away from everyone until the trees swallowed her up.

  Azrel sighed and sheathed her sword, then looked at Isadith and gently smiled. “Thanks for coming to Ortheldo’s defense, but was hitting her really necessary?”

  “No,” Isadith replied, still looking in the direction Acalith left in. “I just wanted to.”

  Azrel just shook her head, amused.

  I had to admit it was about time Acalith was brought down a notch, but I wasn’t about to have a chuckle at my leader’s expense. She wasn’t the White Warrior, though she acted like it most of the time. As she’d gotten closer to Rabryn, her condescending attitude had mellowed. She’d seemed gentler somehow. But now that Rabryn had told off the White Warrior, Acalith was back to her bossy self.

  “Azrel,” Rabryn said, stepping forward, “what’s going on?”

  “This entire ambush was the White Warrior’s doing,” Azrel responded. “She planned it.”

  “When? How?”

  Azrel smiled condescendingly. “She’s the most powerful being on the earth. She can do just about anything she wants.”

  “Except have a soul,” Reese mumbled, earning a minor glare from Azrel and a smile from the rest of us.

  “When we stopped at the hill, before you even headed into the woods, she left me.” All of us exclaimed with confusion and horror.

  “You mean your magic left you?” I asked.

  Azrel nodded. “Just temporarily. She can’t survive on her own without a body. She does need me.”

  There was a ring of pride, and even a sense of peace, in her tone. For the first time since I met her, Azrel was glowing. The White Warrior needed her. She didn’t feel like useless baggage anymore. She’d finally realized that she and the White Warrior were two halves of one whole. Azrel knew she had a purpose now…they had a purpose together.

  That’s why she’d looked so radiant when she jumped off the tree branch. She’d realized finally that the White Warrior needed her. Perhaps the White Warrior realized she needed Azrel too, which I could only imagine was wounding her pride right now.

  “She left me to meet with Palpanor,” Azrel continued. “She gave him this location and orders to have every Salynn able to wield a weapon rally here. She knew the power of the necklace would draw the Shadow creatures to us. Once they were all gathered, she let me and the Whiteians know. That’s when I jumped off the branch so I could get their attention and the Galad Kasians could attack.”

  Palpanor stepped forward. “Our woods were filled with these creatures. They were scattered broader than my people could handle.” He smiled at Azrel. “But with your help we were able to get them all at once. Our woods are clear and safe once again.”

  Azrel grinned. “Rabryn, will you please go get Acalith?”

  “Why me?” he fired back a little childishly.

  “Because I’m asking you to. Please?”

  Ortheldo patted him on the back and nodded, silently warning him not to be a baby about it and to just go. So there was still a little innocence left in Rabryn after all. I found that relieving, but I also knew it wouldn’t last much longer out here with a Second Shadow at hand.

  Rabryn straightened his back and sighed through his nose. “Very well.” He kissed Azrel’s cheek and started in the direction in which Acalith had gone.

  Azrel’s incredible blue eyes met mine. “Addredoc, could you please clean up this filth?” She smiled and winked. “Give the Salynns a good show.”

  I smiled in return.

  “Yes,” Lisswilla barked, “give them a good show, like some pathetic traveling circus.”

  I grinned at him. I refused to be bothered by him right now. “It’s okay to be jealous. I would be too, if I were you.”

  His eyes went slightly wider. “You wish I was jealous of you!”

  “Just like you wish you could wield my incredible magic.”

  Even under the mask I could see his jaw clench.

  I held my hands out as they started glowing with my powerful red magic. First I pulled out each and every arrow, cleaned them off, and sent them all into various directions back to the Salynns who originally fired them. They all “oooed” and “ahhhed” as their very own arrows landed back in their quivers. I glanced at Lisswilla. His face was red and he looked away stubbornly. After pouring out energy for a few seconds, I let my magic release, and with a loud, thunder-like crack the thousand dead black bodies vanished. Then I took the time to clean up every drop of black blood from every single leaf that covered forest floor. The applause was gentle but enthusiastic. Azrel’s proud grin, though, meant more to me.

  I nearly flinched in shock when I realized something: I had an answer to her question. She had asked us a few nights ago who we loved, her or the White Warrior. In that moment, with her smiling and proud of me, I realized I loved Azrel. I felt a surprising relief with that knowledge. There were no more questions. I was just ready to die for Azrel.

  I wondered about my protective shield though. I wondered if this realization about how I felt about Azrel strengthened it or weakened it. After all, I only loved half of who Azrel was. I was sure Acalith, the only one who could detect its strength, would be all too pleased to let me know when she returned. I sighed and decided to enjoy being with Azrel right now, in case my shield was weak enough for Acalith to banish me from Azrel’s side.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Rabryn

  I was never gladder for my silent Salynn steps than at this very moment. Without them I would have missed what I was seeing. Acalith was on her knees with her head bowed and her shoulders shaking from crying so hard. I had been listened to her sobs nearly the entire way here, but I wasn’t sure I’d been hearing correctly.

  I feared making any noise for a moment, worried I might embarrass her, but then I remembered I was angry with her. “So you are capable of human emotion,” I fired at her back.

  She froze and sucked in a breath. I saw her swallow a couple of times so she could try to sound like she hadn’t been crying. “Go away.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m a Salynn. I’ve been able to hear you bawling for the past ten minutes.”

  She looked back at me angrily with red-rimmed eyes. Fresh tears dripped down her cheeks. “Were you enjoying yourself?”

  I wanted to feel compassion for her but she hadn’t shown any to my sister; therefore, she deserved none from me. “Are you kidding? I was shocked that you betrayed some humanity.”

  Her eyes narrowed further. “You’re a jerk!”

  I shrugged. “Takes one to know one.”

  She quickly got to her feet and threw her arms out wide to her sides. “How am I a jerk when all I’ve been doing is my job?”

  “It’s how you’ve been doing your job that makes you a jerk!” I hollered back at her.

  “What are you talking about? What have I done that’s so terrible?”

  “You did nothing!” I cried. “That’s what you did wrong. When the White Warrior was attacking Azrel, you did nothing! I protected Azrel that night. I did your job!”

  Acalith glared at me. “My job isn’t to protect, or even defend, Azrel; it’s to protect and defend the White Warrior.”

  Now I threw my arms out to my sides. “Then what the hell are you doing here?”

  Acalith blanched as if I’d slapped her.

  “Huh?” I pressed.

  “My job,” she said softly but firmly.

  “You want to protect the White Warrior?
” I asked. She stayed silent. “The White Warrior isn’t here!” I cried. “She’s locked up in my sister’s mind until Azrel lets her out, which in case you haven’t noticed isn’t very often. So if the White Warrior isn’t here, what are you doing here?”

  Acalith set her jaw and crossed her arms. “Fine, I’m here to protect Azrel too, but from physical harm, not verbal abuse of the person who outranks her—and who outranks me for that matter!”

  I felt like I was talking to a stubborn child. I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. “You don’t get it, do you? Azrel and the White Warrior are the same person! One cannot exist without the other. The White Warrior needs a solid body in order to exist, and Azrel needs her magic to live. If you think your job doesn’t consist of protecting both of them from every kind of abuse and harm, then you have no business being here at all.”

  I turned and started to walk away. Boy, did she have her job description warped. Protect one and not the other when they were in the same body? That didn’t even make sense. Well, nothing about my sister’s condition made sense, but they were essentially the same person. Both of them needed to be protected by their Deralilya. It’s not like Azrel had one Deralilya and the White Warrior had another!

  “I fear her!” Acalith suddenly cried out. I paused and looked at her over my shoulder. She was crying again. “I thought maybe if I acted as abrasively towards Azrel as the White Warrior did, maybe she would trust me more…maybe she would…like me more.”

  I turned to face her. “Well that’s ridiculous,” I said more softly. “If the White Warrior asked you to choose between her and Azrel, what kind of Warrior of Goodness is she? As far as I’m concerned, if she made you pick between two sides of Goodness—her or Azrel—she doesn’t deserve to wield The Light Gods’ power on earth.”

  Acalith remained quiet and looked away in thought. I waited for her to argue with me further, but she surprised me. “I suppose that makes sense.”

  “Which is it? Do you suppose it makes sense or does it make sense?”